Apparatus for manufacturing tin plate



(No Model.) j 6 Sheets-Sheet 1.

' D. EDWARDS.

APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING TIN PLATE. No. 486,635.

Patented Nov. 22, 1892.

(No Model.) 6 'SheetsSheet 2. A D. EDWARDS. A APPARATUS FORMANUFACTURING TIN PLATE.

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D.-E'DWA,R'DS.. v :APPARATU'S-POR MANUFACTURING TIN PLATE.

No. 486,635. Patented Nov. 22,1892;

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(No Model.) '6 Sheets-Sheet 4;

D. EDWARDS. APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING TIN PLATE.

No. 486,635; Patented Nov. 22,1892.

(No Model.) 6 SheetsSheet 5.

D. EDWARDS. APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING TIN PLATE. No. 486,635.'Patented Nov. 22,1892.

(No Model.) 6 Sheets-8heet 6.

D. EDWARDS. APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING TIN PLATE.

No. 486,635. Patented Nov. 22,1892.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DANIEL EDWARDS, OF MORRISTON, ENGLAND.

APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING TIN-PLATE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 486,635, dated November22, 1892.

Application filed April 12, 1892- gerial No. 428,871- No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, DANIEL EDWARDS, tinplate manufacturer, a subject ofthe Queen of Great Britain, residing at D yffryn Steel and Tin PlateWorks, Morriston, in the county of Glamorgan, Wales, have inventedcertain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus Used in the Manufactureof Tin, Terne, and other Coated-Metal Plates, of which the following isa specification.

The object of this invention is to enable the plates which are to becoated to be delivered automatically one by one to guide rolls orcarriers which pass down into the tinning-pot and to push the platesalong the guide rolls or carriers up to the rolls which are at the exitend of the pot. The inventionis more especially applicable to apparatussuch as is described in the specification of Patent No. 432,520; but canalso be adapted to other forms of coating apparatus. To feed plates oneby one into the tinning-pot, I place a pile of plates at the front ofthe pot, sloping somewhat downward. To take the plates one by one fromthe pile, I use a pneumatic sucker carried at the end of an arm whichextends radially from a horizontal axis which is parallel with the frontend of the pot. WVhen the arm is approximately at right angles to theplate, the sucker is thrust outward along the arm and brought againstthe front plate. The sucker being pressed against the plate is collapsedand air expelled from it, and is thereby caused to obtain a hold of theplate, so that when the sucker is drawn back it tends to draw the plateaway from the others. To insure that a single plate only shall bedetached from the pile by the sucker, I preferably apply the suckeragainst the lower portion of the plate, and when the sucker has got holdof the platel give to it a slight tilting movement, so as to tend tobend the lower edge of the plate away from the others and admit airbetween it and the next plate. As soon as the plate is detached itslower edge is brought by the sucker into position to drop between theupper ends of the guides which lead down into the pot. The sucker isthen caused to release its hold of the plate by admitting air between itand the plate. A pusher is next brought against the rear edge of theplate and pushes the plate forward along the guides until the forwardend of the plate is seized by the rolls. Afterward the pusher is carriedback to its former position, ready to act in the same way upon the nextplate.

The drawings annexed show apparatus acting in the manner abovedescribed.

Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of the apparatus. Fig. 1 ispart of the same on a larger scale, and Fig. 2 is a plan view with someparts removed, the View being taken in the direction of the arrow inFig. 1. Fig. 3 is a diagram view of one of the suckers and parts inconnection with it. This diagram shows the position of the parts at thetime when the sucker is being pressed against the pile of plates.Fig.4is a similar diagram showing the position of the parts when thesucker is being tilted. Fig. 5 shows the position of the parts when thesucker has been drawn back. Fig. 6 shows the position of the parts whenthe plate has been carried into position to be dropped into thetinning-pot. Figs. 7 and 8 show separate views of the claw used forreleasing the suckers.

A is an inclined table or support, upon which is to be placed the pileof plates which are to bepassed one by one into the tinningpot.

B is part of the upper portion of the tinning-pot, above which theinclined table A is supported. In the drawing Fig. 2 the pot is shown asbeing of a width for two plates to be treated simultaneously.

0 O are suckers, two for each plate. Each is composed simply of a diskof vulcanized india-rubber secured at the center to the center of ametal disk, which is at the end of a rod that can play to and fro freelyin tubular guides C. These guides are all secured to a bar 0 which, asshown, is jointed by joints 0 to arms which extend from a boss 0 that isfast on the end of a rod D. The rod D is supported in guides on an arm E(see Figs. 1" and 2) in such a way that it can be moved to and froendwise along this arm, and the suckers thereby moved backward orforward. The arm E at its rear end can turn freely on a shaft F, and atits forward end it rests nor mally on a fixed support G. The rear end ofthe rod D is jointed to one arm of a cranklever H, the other arm ofwhich carries a weight H which tends always to draw the rod backward. Onthe axis of this crank-lever is also an arm II, which by a link iscoupled to a lever I. \Vhen the suckers are to be thrust forward againstthe plates, this lever is acted upon by a crank-pin J, which projectsout from a disk J on a shaft J, which is revolved continuously.

K K are pushers by which the plates are pressed forward along the guidesB into the tinning-pot B. The pushers descend from a bar L, which iscarried by arms L from the shaft F. Fixed on this shaft is also aslotted arm L through the slot in which the crankpin J projects. In thisway the pushers are raised and lowered as the shaft J is revolved. Justbefore the suckers are thrust forward against the plates the bar whichcarries them is raised somewhat to bring them into proper position. Todo this the arm E at its forward end carries a horizontal bar E. This ateach of its ends is made to embrace looselycurved bars L which projectdownward from the bar L, which carries the pushers. When the pushers Khave arrived toward the end of their upward movement, stops L at thebottom of the bars L come against the under side of the ends of the barE, and so carry upward with it the forward end of the rod D and thesucker-bar which is jointed to it.

C is an arm extending backward from the bar C M is a catch capable ofsliding to and fro upon the rod D. Normally itcatches over the rear endof the arm 0 when the stems of the suckers are parallel with the rod D.

N is a stop carried by the bar E, against which the catch M strikes whenthe rod D is thrust forward. This arrests the catch, and as the rodcontinues to be moved forward the rear end of the arm C gets clear ofthe catch, and the suckers are thus free to tilt.

C is a small projection from the front of the bar C which comes below astop 0 before the arm (3 is liberated from the catch M. This arrestsfurther upward movement of the bar C and this bar and the suckers whichit carries are therefore compelled to tilt as the bar E continues torise. To limit the extent to which the suckers can be tilted, the rearend of the arm C passes through a metal loop C Extensions from this loopform guides, between which the catch M works to and fro.

To release the suckers from the plates, claws O are used, carried byjointed arms 0 from an axis 0 The bearings for this axis are carried bythe bar 0 and normally the suckers are held out of action by a weight 0carried by an arm 0 fast on the axis 0 0 (see Figs. 7 and S) is aspring, which tends to hold the two parts of the arm 0 in a line withone another. \Vhen the bar 0 descends down onto the fixed support G, theweighted arm comes against a stop P. The axis 0 is thereby caused toturn and bring the claws 0 against the edge of the india-rubber disk ofthe sucker, and then as the axis 0 continues to turn the arm bends intothe position shown in Diagram 6 and the claw is drawn backward, carryingalong with it the portion of the india-rubber disk with which itengages, so disengaging the disk from the plate. The plate will then befree from the sucker and can drop down into the tinning-pot.

The action of the apparatus is as follows: A pile of plates is placed inan inclined position, resting upon the inclined table or support A. Asthe axis J revolves and the arms which carry the pushers have completedmost of their upward movement the suckers are somewhat raised in themanner above explained to bring them opposite to the portion of theplate against which they are to be pressed. The rod D is then thrustforward by the action of the crank-pin J upon the lever I. The joints Gwhich connect the sucker-bar C to the rod D, are in this way brought infront of the bar E, by which the forward end of the rod is being lifted.The suckers would then be free to turn downward were it not that the arm0 is caught by the sliding catch M. Just when the rod D has been thrustforward to such an extent that the arm C is nearly free from the catch Ma projection from the front end of the arm comes close under the stop0'. The parts are shown in this position in Diagram 3. Immediately thatthe arm is free from the catch the sucker, which has now been pressedfirmly against the plates, is tilted by reason of the joints C beingcarried upward a short distance farther by the continued upward movementof the bar E, and consequently of the rod D. By this movement the loweredge of the plate that the suckers are holding onto is bent somewhataway from the other plates in the pile, and this being done theremainder of the plate can very readily separate itself from the otherswhen the suckers are moved back. The suckers are now at once drawn backby the action of the weight H and the pushers commence to descend andcarry along with them the arms, which carry the suckers. As the armsdescend the weighted arm 0 comes against the stop P and is by it turnedinto the position shown in Diagram 6. As it does so the claws O lay holdof the edges of the flexible disks of the suckers and then are drawnbackward, as above explained, to admit air between the disk and theplates which they are holding, and the plates are so released andallowed to drop between the guides B, which guide them down into thetinningpot B. The pushers then descend onto the upper edges of theplates and push the plates forward along the guides until they areseized between the pairs of rolls to which the guides lead them.

\Vhat I claim is- 1. In apparatus usedin coating metal plates, thecombination of a pot for melted coating metal, a support for a pile ofplates to be coated, a sucker or suckers, mechanism for pressing themagainst and causing them to lay hold of the outermost plate near one ofits edges and for then tilting the suckers to bend this edge of theplate outward and for afterward drawing back the suckers away from thepile, and mechanism for then releasing the suckers from the plate toallow the plate to drop down into the bath of coating metal,substantially as described.

2. The mechanism for taking plates one by one from a pile of plates,consisting of a pneumatic sucker and mechanism by which such sucker isfirst brought against the front plate of the pile near one of its edges,then tilted to bend that edge outward away from the pile, and afterwardmoved back from the pile, and a claw which takes hold of a portion ofthe edge of the sucker and bends it back so as to release the suckerfrom the plate,

20 substantially as described.

3. The combination of the pot for metal, the support for a pile ofplates, the sucker, the rod to which it is jointed, the arm thatsupports the rod, the axis by which the rear end of the arm issupported, the fixed stop which normally upholds the front end of thearm, the pushers carried by arms which are fast upon the axis, mechanismfor giving a rocking motion to the axis and for thrusting the rod towardor away from the axis, and 3e mechanism for drawing back a portion ofthe outer circumference of the sucker after the sucker has been drawnbackward away from the pile of plates, substantially as described.

DANIEL EDWARDS.

Witnesses:

W. STOBO ANDREW, A. HELY, Clerks to Messrs. Beor ab Plant, Solicitors,

Swansea.

